REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE OF INQUIRY INTO SHIPPING

The establishment of a unified Shipping Research and Development Institute and a separate industrial training board for shipping are among the chief recommendations of a committee investigating the shipping industry. The committee, set up under Lord Rochdale in 1967 by the President of the Board of Trade, emphasizes the shortage of good management in the middle echelons of the industry and comes out firmly against substantial state involvement in the industry. It rejects the need for any increase in government expenditure on research and development in shipping. Although the report dwells for the most part on trade and manpower questions, the committee has clearly found cause to study in some depth the innovative side of the industry. For one thing, research on shipping and relevant aspects of engineering is unnaturally fragmented, the committee points out. There is a lack of coordination within the industry, because companies are too preoccupied with safeguarding narrow commercial interests. The establishment of a central R and D institute is the remedy proposed by the committee. The institute would embrace the Ship Division of the National Physical Laboratory, the British Ship Research Association and the Shipowners Refrigerated Cargo Research Association, with anyone else free to join should they wish. Of the 1.15 million pounds research budget for 1968/9, the government contributed 34 per cent, and most of the remainder was provided by the shipbuilders. The committee notes the little work being done at universities on engineering, equipment or systems specifically for ships, and chides the Chamber of Shipping for its lack of a university research programme. The shipowners together claim to spend about 3.6 million pounds a year on R and D, but much of this could also be labelled production work. Only 4.7 per cent of this figure goes on automation and instrumentation and 3.5 per cent on hydrodynamics and basic ship design.

• Corporate Authors:

  Her Majesty Stationary Office

  49 High Holborn
  London WC1V 6HB,   England 
• Publication Date: 1970-5

Media Info

• Features: Appendices; Figures; Tables;
• Pagination: 498 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Economic analysis; Finance; Project management; Shipping
• Uncontrolled Terms: Financial management
• Old TRIS Terms: Shipping industries
• Subject Areas: Administration and Management; Economics; Finance; Marine Transportation;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00005633
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: Cmnd 4337
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Nov 25 1974 12:00AM